Aviation Safety Managers

An Aviation Safety Manager is a critical part of any Safety program within the airlines. The Safety Manager would be responsible for:

• Ensuring management leadership and commitment.
• Promoting and ensuring employee involvement
• Holding employees responsible and accountable for safety concerns
• Gathering data on accidents and incidents
• Analyzing trend data and risk assessments
• Accident investigation and auditing
• Hazard prevention and control
• Safety Communication and media
• Safety Training

Safety should be an airlines number one concern. Should an aircraft crash, the exposure to the media could be enough to cause the airline to go out of business (i.e. ValueJet). An Airline’s reputations put a lot of weight on their safety record. This is why it is important to have someone oversee all elements of safety within the airline to ensure a preventable accident does not occur. Safety is something the airline should not take lightly. The amount it would take to pay a full time Aviation Safety Manager is mere pocket change in comparison to the amount of money involved in lawsuits and company reputation that would result for a safety related accident.

Human Error

Let’s face it, airplanes don’t crash on their own. Most of the time, they don't crash for mechanical reasons either. Majority of aircraft crashes are a result of some type of human error. Human error can be categorized into five different sections.

• Error of Omission- An action not performed when required (i.e. gear up landing)
• Error of Commission- An action performed when not required (i.e. flap deployment in flight)
• Error of Submission- An action performed incorrectly (i.e. Shutting down the wrong engine)
• Actions performed out of sequence
• Actions performed to late

Methods to control the amount of human error have come a long way. Along with all of aviation safety, it has been because of accidents that they have advanced. There are two basic ways to limit the amount of human error, Engineering and Administrative.

Engineering strategies try to develop a way of constructing aircraft, such as the cockpit, to limit the exposure to possible errors. One example of this is not placing the gear handle near the flap handle and making the gear handle look like a wheel.

Administrative strategies offer solution through the use of policies and procedures. Creating checklist is one example of limiting the exposure to errors.

All in all, human error has been greatly limited through the use of these techniques. However, humans will be humans and as long as we are in the cockpit, there will be errors.

Wells, Alexander, & Rodrigues, Clarence. (2003). Commercial aviation safety. McGraw-Hill Professional.

Ground Operations Safety

When it comes down to the bottom line, the ground operations at an airport are the #1 cause of damages to aircraft. They are also the #1 cause of injury or death to the work on or around aircraft. Many companies have tried to come up with ways to make ground operations safer and more efficient. However there is a cost to speed and efficiency.

One technique that is used to control the amount of damages to aircraft while at the gate is the use of a simple break check. Let’s face it, ground vehicles don’t get serviced like our cars. These vehicles are used day after day in some of the most mechanically stressful environments, not to mention breaks do have a habit of failing. By performing a break check before approaching an aircraft, the risk of hitting an aircraft with equipment because of a break failure is greatly minimized.

Perhaps one of the most effective ways of mitigating ground operations risks is proper and consistent training. If an employee is properly trained the risk of them causing an incident is greatly minimized. Also, it is important for companies to provide recurrent training to keep employees proficient on existing procedures and new procedures.

One of the biggest issues on the ground is runway incursions. The best way to limit the number of incursions is again proper and constant training and review.

Aviation Safety Data Systems

Aviation safety data collection systems have evolved and become even more useful as technology has improved. Through the evolution of aviation and the focus on safety, four major organizations have taken on the role of safety data collection. The main four are the FAA, the Research and Special Programs Administration, the NTSB, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Perhaps one of the most well known by those in aviation is NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System. The ASRS is a voluntary reporting system where pilots, controllers, and others can submit accounts of safety-related aviation incidents. This is one of the best ways of data collection because it is voluntary and there is no chance of repercussions in the way of certificate action because of a report. In fact, an entry into the system may help you if the FAA pursues certificate action.

In all of the systems, the number one limitation by all systems is that they cannot gather information on every event. The systems are only as good as the information presented to them. If false or not totally truthful information is submitted, then the data can be flawed and not accurately show a trend that may lead to an accident.

Wells, Alexander, & Rodrigues, Clarence. (2003). Commercial aviation safety. McGraw-Hill Professional.

Evolution of Aviation Safety Laws and Regulations

Beginning with the U.S. Air Mail Service in the early 1920's, regulations began to surface to improve the safety of aviation. The Post Office Department began to test pilots and required 500 hours of flight time. By 1926 Congress passed the Air Commerce Act. This gave regulatory authority to the Department of Commerce. The Department began to require inspections on aircraft, mechanics, and pilots setting a standard training requirement. The Department of Commerce laid the ground work for what would be the Civil Aeronautics Authority and later the Civil Aeronautics Board. By 1958, Aviation regulation had moved to yet again another agency known as the Federal Aviation Agency. In 1966, the regulating agency became what we know it as today, the Federal Aviation Administration. Through all the years of name changing and agency switching, the ultimate goal has stayed the same which is to promote aviation safety.

It can be said however; that the rules and regulations we have today was mostly developed through a trial and error process and at the cost of human lives. Most regulations did no take effect until lives were lost as a result of a preventable accident. However today, aviation is safer than ever because of the efforts of the FAA and the NTSB. The future of aviation regulation now has to turn its attention to a newly discovered issue, that of human factors and how they affect the safety of aviation.

Wells, Alexander, & Rodrigues, Clarence. (2003). Commercial aviation safety. McGraw-Hill Professional.